Lockheed lands big Defense IT contract

The federal government’s largest contractor landed up to $1.9 billion worth of work Friday in a deal to operate Defense Department networks across the globe.

Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin won a full-and-open competition first opened in January 2011 by the Defense Information Systems Agency. The contract, known as Global Information Grid (GIG) Services Management-Operations (GSM-O) will give Lockheed the job of supporting the day-to-day operations on the global telecommunications system.

The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract is a successor to work now being performed by Science Applications International Corporation. That deal with DISA was SAIC’s single largest contract, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

Lockheed’s three-year contract could extend an additional four years, generating a total value of $4.6 billion.

Francis Rose is the host of In Depth, which airs weekdays from 4-7 p.m. on 1500 AM in the Washington, DC metro area and online everywhere. Francis has covered all three branches of the federal government as a broadcast journalist since 1998. He joined Federal News Radio in 2006, and launched In Depth in 2008 as a daily show focused on connecting federal executives to the information they need to do their jobs better.